posted on 2007-04-01, 00:00authored byArsalan Jamshidi, Stuart Hunter, Sadegh Hazrati, Stuart Harrad
Concentrations and chiral signatures of polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) were measured in outdoor air (using
polyurethane foam (PUF) − disk passive samplers) and
surface soil samples taken at approximately monthly intervals
over 1 year at 10 locations on a rural−urban transect
across the West Midlands of the U.K. In both air and soil,
concentrations clearly decrease with increasing distance
from the city center, supporting the existence of an urban
“pulse”, that indicate the West Midlands conurbation to
be a source of PCBs to the wider environment. Concentrations
of PCBs in outdoor air samples in this study are well
below those reported previously for indoor air in the West
Midlands. This, combined with comparison of chiral
signatures in outdoor air and soil with those in samples
of indoor air taken in the West Midlands, suggest strongly
that the principal contemporary source of PCBs in this
conurbation is ventilation of indoor air and not volatilization
from soil. Future reductions in PCB concentrations in
outdoor air and ultimately human exposure appear best
achieved by action to remove remaining sources of PCBs
from existing structures.